At the time of floating Rajiv Awas Yojna (RAY) the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Elevation had made appointments of technical experts for the purpose of smooth and successful implementation of Housing for All (HFA) scheme. J&K was also a beneficiary of this scheme. But these technical experts remain disengaged in the State since October 2015 affecting the project. It is not known why these experts numbering about twenty have been disengaged. HFA project is a time-bound programme. The target for the implementation of first phase is 2017, second is 2019 and third 2022. But how can the project proceed without technical advice by the city technical expert which has been selected after due process of selection. In other words it means that the six cities including Srinagar and Jammu will remain deprived of the benefits of HFA scheme. That is a tremendous loss and also means bringing the two capital cities under great pressure at a time when rural population is migrating to cities in big numbers. After attending orientation and other training courses the technical experts were hired for two years on contract basis. Central Government desired that HFA utilizes the services of technical experts engaged under RAY into HFA and also engage these professionals/experts for the monitoring, supervision and other pre-project activities.
However, the concerned department reversed the direction of Union Ministry by disengaging the already appointed experts. These experts have not been engaged till date and also other new professionals were not engaged as well. The High Court in Srinagar and Jammu, after studying the case, stayed the Government disengagement order but the concerned department didn’t engage these technical experts for unknown reasons while as the staff engaged under RAY are continuing their services in HFA in rest of the country. The RAY programme was also introduced in six J&K cities including Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla.
The State administration is behaving very oddly with the 20 city technical experts and at the same time it is not utilizing their service to the detriment of the six cities. We strongly believe that this position should come to an end and the departments concerned should make proper use of the expertise of these helpers. It has to be reminded that the Union H&UDD Ministry has released the first installment of financial assistance to the tune of Rs 34.13 crore to Jammu and Kashmir out of Rs 4000 crore (for whole country) for starting of HFA programme in Jammu and Kashmir. The second installment of Rs 146.48 lakh was released in November 2015. It means that the funding is not any hurdle in regulating the services of the technical experts.
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